The present invention is directed to automobile accessories, more particularly to accessories for pick-up trucks, and more particularly still to accessories for use with pickup truck bed covers.
Pickup truck owners haul a wide variety of cargos in the beds of their pickup trucks. During fair weather, cargo can be hauled in a pickup bed without concern for damage from the elements. However, during inclement weather some types of cargo must be protected from the environment. To provide such protection, a variety of pickup truck bed covers are manufactured and marketed. However, the usefulness of pickup truck bed covers is hampered by the fact that their design generally allows the cover to be secured only in a horizontal orientation, thereby limiting the height of the cargo that can be hauled in the pickup truck bed. To overcome this limitation, a variety of pickup-bed cover props are manufactured and marketed. However, pickup-bed cover props according to the current state of the art have a number of limitations which makes their use inconvenient or impractical. For instance, current state-of-the-art pickup-bed cover props are typically complicated, bulky, difficult to set up (or require involved, semi-permanent installation), unwieldy to manipulate when altering the height of prop, and/or do not allow continuous adjustment of the height of the prop.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which is light weight, and simple, convenient, and easy to install and use.
Furthermore, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which is simple, convenient and easy to secure to the pickup, attach to the pickup-bed cover, and adjust the orientation of the propped-up pickup-bed cover.
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which may be installed without damage to or alteration of the pickup bed.
Furthermore, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which is simple, convenient and easy to detach from the pickup and the pickup-bed cover.
Furthermore, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which allows a pickup-bed cover to be used to cover cargo exceeding the height of the walls of the pickup bed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which allows the orientation of a propped-up pickup-bed cover to be adjusted, particularly through a continuum of orientations.
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which maintains the orientation of a propped-up pickup-bed cover when forces, such as wind, air drag or acceleration, are applied to the pickup-bed cover.
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop which stabilizes a propped-up pickup-bed cover against pitch and yaw motions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a pickup-bed cover prop whose installation utilizes to advantage the standard features of a pickup truck, particularly the standard features of a pickup truck bed.
Additional objects and advantages of the present application will become apparent upon review of the Figures, Detailed Description of the Present Invention, and appended claims.
The present invention is directed to a pickup-bed cover prop having an elongated base, a means for securing the base to the truck bed, a strut extending from the base, and a means for removably attaching the top end of the strut to the cover to secure the cover at an orientation where it does not rest on the side or rear walls of the pickup truck bed.